East graduates say goodbye to their past

Staff photo by Vinny Tennis
United States Coast Guard Commander and a West Chester alum, Casey White Baker was the guest during the commencement exercises at West Chester East High School in West Chester on Thursday, June 13, 2013.

WEST GOSHEN – The banner on the platform said “The World Awaits”, but the 2013 graduating class of West Chester East High School took time to say their goodbyes first.

Change was inevitable, said class president Austin Kim. The graduates were off “

all on our own paths” to college, the workforce, the armed services.

Kim told his classmates that he understood change, that only three years ago his own life was uprooted when his family moved from Hong Kong to the United States and he came to East.

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Last minute changes included moving the ceremonies indoors because of the threat of stormy weather amid predictions of thunder storms. As the 6 p.m. starting time approached, the sky was heavy with clouds and air thick with humidity.

Principal Richard F. Dunlap Jr. praised staff for making the last minute change from the athletic field to the high school gym for the ceremonies. “To all of you we say thank you,” he said.

The spillover crowd was accommodated in the high school’s auditorium with the proceedings shown on a video screen from the stage. “We had to make it safe for all these people,” said Dunlap.

Salutatorian Susan McQuiston said she wanted to back to see what was happening in the world back in 1994 and 1995 when her classmates were born. Coincidentally, her favorite movie, Toy Story, came out in 1995. She felt her classmates with all the differences and interests reminded her of the different toys that make up the boy Andy’s collection of playthings.

McQuiston said that just as the toys were resistant at first to change, so were she and her classmates as they learned to know and to get along with each other.

McQuiston noted by Toy Story 3, the third of the animation movies, Andy is getting ready to go off to college. And she and her classmates were getting ready to face new lives just like the toys in the movie.

Just like the toy space ranger Buzz Lightyear who said that infinity was “out there” so was the future of her class, said McQuiston.

Valedictorian Megan Zuccato said the big change is that for now on the graduates must educate themselves, that their school days of tests and being told what to learn were over. “Now we can pursue what interests ourselves,” she said.

The graduates have a chance to out in the world. “We have so much to offer and the world awaits,” said Zuccato.